Web Developer

This mini-guide will explain how to make backups of your MySQL Database, and how to restore the data.

This task is usually done when migrating your data to another server, but you should take care to make backups of your data on a routine basis as well. Maintaining backups in another location is a great way to ensure your data is safe in the case of an unexpected event.

This guide assumes that you have shell access to the machine hosting the database. Users managing their database from a control panel should refer to the documentation provided by the hosting company.

The syntax for a complete database backup is as follows:

mysqldump -u[username] -p[password] [database name] > [backup file]

You will then be asked to enter the user’s password and hit enter. So to backup a database named wp_database, using the username wp_user, and the password wp_password, saved to the file wp_backup.sql, you would enter:

mysqldump -uwp_user -pwp_password wp_database > wp_backup.sql

Enter the password at the prompt and the file containing your database will be created.

To only backup certain tables from your database, just list them after the database name. For example, to only backup the tables named wp_comments and wp_posts, you would use:

Comments

I agree Chris. I haven’t used Godaddy in a long time. I have been using 1and1.com for awhile. Ironically, now I am changing to hostgator soon. They are currently the most top rated host. I had no idea that they auto-renewed for Godaddy SSL certificates, I need to let some of my recent clients know that, I have referred a few to godaddy’s SSL system.

Thanks, Chris, this was helpful. The steps are a bit different as of 7/24/2011.

1. Login to GoDaddy
2. Click My Account on the top listing
3. Click “My Payment Information” on the left side nav bar
4. Click the small “View All Renewing Items” hyperlink on top of the grid of products that display on the next page
5. This brings up the page “Payment Profile” where all auto-renew items are listed
6. Click the “Auto” column header and look for any items turned “On”
7. Check the box next to any “On” items and click “Auto Renew ” at the top
8. On the right side of page, check “Disable Auto Renew” then “Save Changes”.

Before I found these instructions I went to what I thought wasthe obvious link “My Renewals” but this has NO SSL certificates listed. I assumed that they weren’t auto-renewing. Their 15 and 30 day reminder email messages make NO mention of auto-renew (unlike their domain renewals).

Suddenly we had our credit card hit. Not only do they auto-renew, they do it a month BEFORE the certificate is due to expire!!! I wouldn’t normally worry but this was a Wildcard certificate that cost $200. We had to drop it because we also found their claim of 99% compatibility to be untrue. I didn’t work on versions of Safari for the iPhone.

Definitely deceptive. I have a complaint in to them now. If they don’t resolve it I’ll have American Express reverse the charge